1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to hand-held devices and, more particularly, to providing a notification that a user of a hand-held device has forgotten his or her password.
2. Background of the Invention
Most handheld devices allow the user to password protect the device so that only he or she can access the information stored to that device. Once a password is established for a particular device, the user must enter that password, typically at power-on, prior to accessing the information stored to the device.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a screen 100 that allows a user of a hand-held device to establish a password, according to the prior art. The screen 100 includes a first box 110 for entering a password, a second box 120 for confirming the password, a plurality of possible selections 130 for when the password should be required, and an apply input 140. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a screen 200 that requires a user of a hand-held device to provide a password to unlock the hand-held device, according to the prior art. The screen 200 includes a first box 210 for entering the password, and an accept input 220.
If the user of a hand-held device sets a password to protect the contents stored to the device and subsequently forgets the password, then the device has become useless until such a time as the user recalls the forgotten password (which may not be possible) or is able to have the password reset at some later point (which may be inconvenient).
Some hand-held devices allow the user to delete the forgotten password along with all sensitive information stored to the device. However, this is undesirable because the user must then go through the tedious process of reentering or re-downloading the deleted content. Other hand-held devices require that the user return the device to the manufacturer to delete the forgotten password. This is also undesirable because the user would be required to be without the device for some period of time. Thus, neither of these solutions is acceptable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have a hand-held device that provides a notification to a system administrator that the user of the hand-held device has forgotten his or her password. Such an approach should allow the system administrator to reset the forgotten password or allow the user to use an emergency password until a new password can be assigned.